66 Swing Away Steering Wheel

[taholler]

I just had the shift lever, detent plate, steering column bearing sleeve and transmission selector tube bushing on my 66 replaced. The steering column was removed to replace the bushing because my mechanic did not want to do it by slitting it and pushing it over the column and into the tube. The neutral safety switch was replaced as well.

After doing all this, the swing away steering wheel works very differently then it did before. Used to be I had to pull the shift lever towards me while in Park and push the wheel to my right at the same time with my other hand. The wheel would swing maybe 3 inches and then stop until I released the shift lever and then it would swing over the rest of the way. So it was a 2 step effort.

As it is now, pulling the lever towards me no longer releases the wheel. It won't release until I push the shift lever upwards until the pointer is almost all the way off of the left side of the "P" symbol. Then I can just let go of the lever and the wheel will swing all the way over without me doing anything other then just pushing it.

So my question is, how is the swing away wheel supposed to work - as it was before, as it is now, or perhaps is it supposed to just release and let me swing it over once I have shifted into Park without me having to do anything else with the shift lever after I have put it in Park?

 

[65BLUBIRD]

My 65 works as yours does now. Move selector to park and swings all the way out of the way. Yours may need some adjustment if you really have to shove the lever up.

 

[HeadacheGuy]

The adjustment is very easy under the dash for the lockout. Mine works smoothly in park with no other effort and I have it adjusted to where it can't quite achieve reverse when over about 1 inch. Your mechanic might have been more concerned with safety but you should be able to back it off a little and still be safe, especially with new bushings.